Earlier this week I attended a Broker’s Roundtable where 4 highly distinguished brokers gave feedback on how to enhance relationships during the COVID-19 pandemic by cold calling realtors. See, when COVID happened, everything – and I mean everything – came to a screeching halt! Realtors were afraid to going out to see their clients because they didn’t want to put their health or lives at risk. Because of that, the staging community was impacted. In case you’re not a part of the Real Estate Industry, our businesses flourish because of the relationships we create with others. Not from a business card or a brochure.
Those relationships can only be created and enhanced when we see and communicate with each other. I started attending realtor and real estate investor events about 18 months ago, so I wasn’t happy when all-of-a-sudden I had to stop. I NEEDED to see people for the sake of my business. Seeing people and creating relationships is the lifeline of my business. Now what?! Well, that’s what I came to find out during the Broker’s Roundtable session. What is this whole thing about cold calling realtors anyway?!?!
My takeaway from the call was to use the phone more. Realtors are bombarded with emails from Industry Partners all day every day and they don’t want to get another email or another text from another person trying to sell them something. They’re busy and they get tired. Call them to say hi and to see how they’re doing, without trying to sell them anything. Realtors are people too. This morning I decided to get on the phone and I started making calls to those I knew. To top it off, I included cold calling realtors as well – YIKES!!! Let me share how I was able to get over the hump and make the first cold call:
1. Write a script – Yeah that’s right – I wrote down exactly what I wanted to say. I included that I’m currently part of a realtor association and that I’m serving on a committee, that way I have some credibility with them. I’m concerned about what they’re concerned for and want to do my best to serve them. I then included what services I offer and mentioned that if there’s a possibility they are affiliated with another stager, I would love to send them some information. That’s it – plain and simple.
2. Practice makes perfect – This is the part that makes me nervous about cold calling realtors. Once I wrote my script, I picked up the phone, made the first call and then hung up without saying anything. I couldn’t think of anything to say, even with the script in front of me. When I’m like that, I know that I have to practice! How I practice is by getting my script and doing mirror work with it, or I practice while recording myself on video. Either way, I have to get familiar with what I’m going to say before I say it and generally speaking, I have to get out of my own head. If you have a friend you can practice with, then try that. Either one of these ideas will help you deal with the nervousness before you actually get on the phone to cold call realtors.
Once I finally got on the phone and started calling, the nervousness kicked in and I started to pace my breathing by slowing it down and being more aware of it. It helped me speak slower so that I could emphasize certain words and sound less robotic. The fact is, it takes a lot of cold calls to get a “yes” and gladly it didn’t take many before a realtor responded to ask for a list of my Home Staging Services. Overall, I’m glad I did it. Will I get nervous again in the future? HECK YEAH! I won’t let that stop me though because this is all about training and development. People who can cold call can certainly do anything and I’m continuously striving to be one of those people. All it takes is a little bit of practice and loving support from those around you.
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